[Federal Register Volume 88, Number 80 (Wednesday, April 26, 2023)]
[Notices]
[Pages 25422-25423]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 2023-08807]


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DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

National Park Service

[NPS-WASO-NAGPRA-NPS0035714; PPWOCRADN0-PCU00RP14.R50000]


Notice of Intent To Repatriate Cultural Items: U.S. Army Corps of 
Engineers, Mobile District, Mobile, AL

AGENCY: National Park Service, Interior.

ACTION: Notice.

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SUMMARY: In accordance with the Native American Graves Protection and 
Repatriation Act (NAGPRA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile 
District, intends to repatriate certain cultural items that meet the 
definition of unassociated funerary objects and that have a cultural 
affiliation with the Indian Tribes or Native Hawaiian organizations in 
this notice. The cultural items were removed from Itawamba and 
Tishomingo Counties, MS.

DATES: Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice may occur on 
or after May 26, 2023.

ADDRESSES: Ms. Alexandria Smith, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile 
District, 109 St. Joseph Street, P.O. Box 2288, Mobile, AL 36628-0001, 
telephone (251) 690-2728, email [email protected].

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: This notice is published as part of the 
National Park Service's administrative responsibilities under NAGPRA. 
The determinations in this notice are the sole responsibility of the 
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District. The National Park 
Service is not responsible for the determinations in this notice. 
Additional information on the determinations in this notice, including 
the results of consultation, can be found in the summary or related 
records held by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District.

Description

    Nineteen cultural items were removed from Itawamba County, MS. The 
White Springs site (22IT537) was originally recorded by Joseph Caldwell 
and S.D. Lewis in 1971, during a survey of the Canal Section of the 
Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The site was identified as a 15-to-20-
acre village site located in a field on the east side. Archeological 
phases identified at the site include Early Archaic, Gulf Formational, 
Middle and Late Woodland, and Mississippian. Testing excavations were 
conducted in April of 1971, and full-scale excavation was conducted 
between July and August of the same year by the University of Southern 
Mississippi. The 19 unassociated funerary objects consist of four lots 
of ceramics, six lots of lithics, three lots of faunal remains, one lot 
of shells, one lot of soil samples, one lot of projectile points, one 
lot of sandstone, one lot of petrified wood, and one lot of charcoal.
    Fifteen cultural items were removed from Itawamba County, MS. 
Joseph Caldwell and S.D. Lewis identified the Walnut site (22IT539) in 
November of 1971 in a floodplain near the confluence of Mackeys and Big 
Brown Creeks. The site is located within the operational boundaries of 
the Canal Section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. It was described 
as a village site measuring 100 feet by 150 feet located on a rise in 
swamp and low forest. According to the site form, the site had been 
looted and partly cleared for a powerline. Archeological phases 
associated with the site include Middle Archaic, Late Archaic, Middle 
Gulf Formational, and Woodland. The 15 unassociated funerary objects 
consist of nine lots of perpetuity samples, one lot of macrobotanicals, 
one preform, one anvil stone, one lot of hammerstones, one lot of 
projectile points, and one lot of chipped stone fragments.
    Seven cultural items were removed from Itawamba County, MS. The 
Poplar site (22IT576) was recorded in 1975 by J.R. Atkinson in the 
Canal Section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. Atkinson described 
the site as a circular Woodland midden mound with black soil 
approximately one half acre in size. The University of Alabama 
conducted archeological testing at the site in 1979 and full-scale 
excavations in 1980. Poplar is a multi-component site with Paleoindian, 
Archaic, and Woodland components. The seven unassociated funerary 
objects consist of two lots of debris, two lots of faunal remains, one 
lot of hematite, and two lots of flakes.
    Fourteen cultural items were removed from Tishomingo County, MS. 
The F.L. Brinkley Midden site (22TS729) is located in the Divide Cut 
Section of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway. The site was documented as 
a stratified accretional midden dating from the Early Archaic through 
the Middle Woodland periods. The site was excavated by the Office of 
Archaeological Research, University of Alabama, between December 5, 
1977, and July 7, 1978. The cultural items from this site presently 
reside at the Cobb Institute, Mississippi State University. Due to 
preservation concerns, most likely, no human remains were ever removed 
from the site. The 14 unassociated funerary objects consist of one lot 
of ceramics, four lots of lithics, one lot of sandstone, one lot of 
clay, five lots of float samples, and two lots of soil samples.

Cultural Affiliation

    The cultural items in this notice are connected to one or more 
identifiable earlier groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures. There is a 
relationship of shared group identity between the identifiable earlier 
groups, tribes, peoples, or cultures and one or more Indian Tribes or 
Native Hawaiian organizations. The following types of information were 
used to reasonably trace the relationship: archeological, geographical, 
historical, other information, and expert opinion.

Determinations

    Pursuant to NAGPRA and its implementing regulations, and after 
consultation with the appropriate Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian 
organizations, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, has 
determined that:
     The 55 cultural items described above are reasonably 
believed to have been placed with or near individual human remains at 
the time of death or later as part of the death rite or ceremony and 
are believed, by a preponderance of the evidence, to have been removed 
from a specific burial site of a Native American individual.
     There is a relationship of shared group identity that can 
be reasonably traced between the cultural items and the Alabama-
Coushatta Tribe of Texas; Alabama-Quassarte Tribal Town; Coushatta 
Tribe of Louisiana; and The Chickasaw Nation.

Requests for Repatriation

    Additional, written requests for repatriation of the cultural items 
in this

[[Page 25423]]

notice must be sent to the Responsible Official identified in 
ADDRESSES. Requests for repatriation may be submitted by any lineal 
descendant, Indian Tribe, or Native Hawaiian organization not 
identified in this notice who shows, by a preponderance of the 
evidence, that the requestor is a lineal descendant or a culturally 
affiliated Indian Tribe or Native Hawaiian organization.
    Repatriation of the cultural items in this notice to a requestor 
may occur on or after May 26, 2023. If competing requests for 
repatriation are received, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Mobile 
District, must determine the most appropriate requestor prior to 
repatriation. Requests for joint repatriation of the cultural items are 
considered a single request and not competing requests. The U.S. Army 
Corps of Engineers, Mobile District, is responsible for sending a copy 
of this notice to the Indian Tribes identified in this notice.
    Authority: Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, 
25 U.S.C. 3003, and the implementing regulations, 43 CFR 10.8, Sec.  
10.10, and Sec.  10.14.

    Dated: April 19, 2023.
Melanie O'Brien,
Manager, National NAGPRA Program.
[FR Doc. 2023-08807 Filed 4-25-23; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4312-52-P